University students test drive solar car at Dezzi’s

THE University of KwaZulu-Natal’s (UKZN) School of Engineering visited Dezzi Raceway last Thursday to try out the solar car, Hulamin. The car was officially launched last Wednesday at the Howard College Campus and the very next day the students test drove their solar car at Dezzi Raceway.

Hulamin is the culmination of hard work and dedication from some of UKZN’s best engineering students, and represents innovative and energy efficient engineering design, promoting green energy for the future. The solar car is a UKZN initiative, previously known as Hulamin-iKlwa and now rebranded ‘Hulamin’. The team named the car ‘Hulamin’ in gratitude to the aluminium manufacturing company which funded and supported the project with the intention to see it entered into the World Solar Challenge.

Over the past two years, the ambitious UKZN Solar Car Team has worked to enhance Hulamin with one goal in mind, to prepare it to qualify as an entrant in the 2015 Bridgestone World Solar Challenge. The car is set to make history as this is the first year the race will see an entrant from Africa.

The 2015 Bridgestone World Solar Challenge will be held in Australia from October 18 to 25. The race will see teams travel a distance of 3 000 kilometres from the city of Darwin in the Northern Territory to Adelaide in South Australia. The UKZN Solar Car Team is one of 47 teams from 25 countries around the world. Hulamin will be entered in the challenger class four wheels, which is considered the primary racing class. The car will be shipped to Australia next Friday, July 31.

Solar Car Project leaders, Kirsty Veale and Dr Clint Bemont said the team is extremely excited about the race.

Dr Bemont said, “We are going to Australia to win. We hope to beat teams from some of the best universities in the world, which include Stanford, Cambridge, MIT and even Delft,” he said.

The university’s vice-chancellor, Dr Albert van Jaarsveld, said: “Not only is this a landmark event for the university but for the province and the country as a whole. I’m confident that the team will come back with the flag flying high,” he said.

iKlwa won the national 2014 Sasol Solar Challenge and set distance records. “The new and improved UKZN solar car is an undergraduate engineering final year project,” said student Suien Rugdeo. “The team includes students and staff from electronic and computer engineering, as well as mechanical

engineering,” he said.

About Hulamin

The car is five metres long, has an aerodynamically optimised design, weighs under 250kg, and is nimble and agile. Hulamin has an asymmetrical design, with a highly aerodynamic profile that has a very small frontal area. The theoretical drag of the car is very low, at 0,07 which enables the car to go faster and further.

The car is lightweight yet rigid and safe, with a fully carbon-composite monocoque chassis. The car will have 6m2 of super-high efficiency silicon solar panels to harvest energy from the sun. This energy can be stored in 21kg of lithium ion batteries. The car exhibits the cutting-edge of solar power and electric vehicle technology, is a reflection of the skill and enthusiasm of UKZN students and a demonstration of what brilliant and dedicated students can achieve.

The solar car did about 15 laps around Dezzi Raceway. “It was such a pleasure driving Hulamin round the track at Dezzi Raceway. We have identified a few problems while driving on the track and have already started working on them,” said Mr Rugdeo.
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